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21 February 2007

Business English or "Office English"

A teacher said: "I have been in business most of my life & found business letters from Australia, New Zealand, America & Canada were written in a fairly casual way. Letters from South Africa & Europe were more formal."

The vast majority of letters our students write will not be "letters" but rather Emails and they won't usually be sales letters or apology letters or late payment notification letters or any of those types of letters found in every “business writing” book, but will be what I call "office" letters. They will be reminding someone that the XYZ label needs to be applied to the front of the boxes or customer ABC wants to know what has happened to his order. This has been my experience after studying hundreds of company Emails.

The standard length of these communications is 55 words, about 3-5 sentences and very informal. This sort of writing will constitute about 90% of the writing in English with the rest being reports and presentations. (I’ll include 30 writing samples from one company below.)Writing constitutes about 90% of their communications in English. About 8% will be speaking on the phone and only about 2% will be face-to-face.

Typically, a professional will already have a firm grasp of the primary language for his profession. He will be very familiar with the technical terms. However, he will be making grammar errors or errors with other vocabulary not directly related to the profession. Sometimes the company, as P&G and others companies, will have their own company lingo, a vocabulary only used in their company. In this case, some students need to learn some more general words that the rest of the world uses. For example, P&G never has any "problems". However, they certainly have some "issues" that need to be dealt with.

The ESP (English for Special Purposes, like English for Manufacturing or English for Information Technology) does not need to teach these special words to professionals but does need to help the student learn how to use them properly in sentences.

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30 Samples:

=======================EMAIL 1:Kindly to inform you that Z H has invited S T to be the speaker of OOC touch point seminar.The seminar will be held on July 27 evening ( Pls see the attachment for the detail rundown).On Z H’s introduction, S T is a very very good speaker and he can speak fluent mandarin too. He is a world class speaker.We think it’s maybe a good opportunity for agency promotion, we wonder whether you need to invite him too?If yes, we should inform R B the schedule today.Your reply today will be highly appreciated!

=======================EMAIL 2The under insured’s leaflet has finish it’s final design, I’ve submit to L for her comment.I’ll attend HR training this two days, A will forward the confirmed design to you ASAP.Anything urgent pls contact A or G.Thank you!

=======================EMAIL 3Dear all:Kindly to remind you that as GZ's inactive orphan policy lead size is not so sufficient. GZ have 2 selection criterias: 1. For the target customers who is inactive for 5 years(the same as SH), 2. For the target customers who is inactive for 3 years. Thank you for your attention.

=======================EMAIL 4Kindly be informed that the marketing plan of Under Insured campaign has been approved by our GM, I’ve fax the hardcopy to you, pls check it.As the time is very tight, can we finish the whole approval circle in two weeks?Thank you very much!

=======================EMAIL 5Considering the under insured campaign is LG channel, to give more information and motivation to our agent, I modified the tracking report: 1. Add a new report named: billboard 2. Modify the agent score card( for team) I've discuss with B, he has agreed with the revise.Thank you!

=======================EMAIL 6Many thanks for your kindest support to make it happen! We strongly believe that Mr. A T is the right person for our seminar. Your continuous support is the key of our success!

=======================EMAIL 7Dear both,D has already invited a guest speaker from HK agency. He is called A T ( Senior District Director).well, he is a very very good speaker and he can speak fluent mandarin too. He is a world class speaker, so u guys need not worry his ability :)Kind regards,

=======================EMAIL 8I’ve double checked these cost items, and they are all right. Furthermore, I’ve mastered how to use correlative forms, and I’ll ask Y’s help when I have other questions.

=======================EMAIL 9There is the final version wording of “NML Campaign” we prepared in the attachment, please help to check whether it is ready to apply for approval program.

=======================EMAIL 10To conduct the campaign better and more conveniently, we prepared three “Production Tracking Reports” for agencies, and we’ll update them every two weeks from now on; Furthermore, because the data in today’s reports just update to June 1st- when our campaign have only launched for ten days, so some items just for your reference. If there are some questions or proposals about these reports, you can contact us further.

=======================EMAIL 11Attached the wording of “Coupon Recapture Campaign” and the “TWN brochure” for your references, please help to design it according to our discussion just now. Thank you so much.

=======================EMAIL 12I am A -member of “Direct Distribution Department”, unfortunately, I have to deal with some affairs in my family, which make me can’t take part in the Birthday Party at “Q.” Club. Best wishes to other folks sincerely.

=======================EMAIL 13Because the “Performance Report0615” is compared with “control group”, so we submitted the figure excluding the data relating to “control group” at the first time, that made the data in this form was not match to the other ones. We revise it correspondingly, and we will submit the “total leads group data” from now on. Pls kindly find the latest reports in the attachment.

=======================EMAIL 15Attached the final-edition design of leaflets for GZ under insured campaign, please kindly help to follow up the CHO’S approval. Furthermore, because we have much trivial work about the leaflets to do before 1st August, such as printing, so the feedback given before 14th July is so appreciated. Thank you very much.

=======================EMAIL 16According to last Friday conference’s decision, we will have a further discussion about “PIF” of correlative products. Next Monday or Tuesday (7.3/7.4) is fine with OOC, wonder whether you are also available. If not, please kindly inform us what time is the most reasonable in your opinion.

=======================EMAIL 17Because GZ should also submit correlative performance reports about “Birthday4 Campaign” to GZ Agency Office tomorrow, so I want to conform whether we will receive the tracking reports today. Thank you very much.

=======================EMAIL 18Dear all,For this urgency, I should inform you to attend the tele-conference for the SDM Phase II launch failure on this Wednesday.Time: 14:30 -16:30 on the 12th Jul, 2006 (Wed)Conference Number: (83xxxxxx)

=======================EMAIL 19Thanks for your helping to generate this TIPS report everyday by manual! But would you pls send this report everyday before 10:30 am, otherwise, the data would be delayed one day. BTW, when would you set up the system to send out the auto pay failure report for renewal case automatically?

=======================EMAIL 20Per tele-conference between Call Center and SDM today morning, according to TM team's request in order to improve the first time auto-pay success rate, SDM operator will postpone the submitted time of FPA & ROPADD Application Form for one day from now on. Thus, all the AF is submitted in today from CT call center will be transferred to A/C by tomorrow noon.

=======================EMAIL 21According to call center's work station request, 30 for A one month and 35 for H cash tow month. Seen from the below w/s arrangement, there is 23 gap in first half of Oct and 53 gap in second half from 88 total w/s that requested by call center in Oct. Thus, the 23 and 88 would be out of our marketing cost budget. How to cover this?

=======================EMAIL 22I want to issue one problem is that the OT hours in Oct is more than before month, according to local "劳动法"(labor rule), it is need to control the OT under 36 hours for individual OT hour, but there are around 40 TSR are above that. Is it any other item has been included in the "OT" field? Another, compared with OOC, their average OT hour is only 8 hours.

=======================EMAIL 23According to the incentive balance, the negative need to be covered by the next coming campaigns. Pls give us the projection and incentive scheme based on the overused incentive. For the pilot campaigns, the negative is 48,980 and 7,887 for rollout by Jan 25. Details see below file.

=======================EMAIL 24According to your projection, only the TM cost has already achieved 66% of the TARP, it is more higher than 30% of ROPADD benchmark. Would pls let us have a discussion for it this afternoon!

=======================EMAIL 25DearsPer discussion this morning, it is suppose the TYPA period equal to actual campaign end date plus 1 week since the new flow of TYPA, so the period set up 4 weeks because the campaign period is 3 weeks from your information before in telephone. For the printing is doing, so the period would not be changed. Pls note!

=======================EMAIL 26The captioned product plan to promote on touch point--Customer Event. China have many Festival, we could cash in on the public holiday to cross/up sell the product via TM campaign. FPA's premium rate is too higher for OOC selected target customers and a few commission rate is preferred for OOC product too.Thanks for your kindest support.

=======================EMAIL 27Are you planning to promote this product in which touch point or any current campaigns?

=======================EMAIL 28Attached pls find the PRF of Ever Festival PA 2 for OOC.The product idea comes from EF(Sponsor channel), there are some differences in benefit and premium rate, pls find the details in attachment.The target launch date was set at the end of August 2006.Should there has any question, pls feel free to contact me.

=======================EMAIL 29Local account need us provide a new monthly breakdown on the new budget. GZ and Agency's production are over adjust, let's have a brainstorming to add new campaign on this afternoon 2pm to 2:30pm? Pls kindly confirm your availability. Thanks.

=======================EMAIL 30Could you provide a monthly breakdown for the updated budget? We need to input into the system by month. Thank you very much!

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Dave is the editor of the Insights Into TEFL blog - recent articles include:

Dave has been teaching companies and individuals in Guangzhou since 1999. He is focused on bringing results, language acquisition, by using the latest researched based methodologies, materials and media, serious study and fun. Students learn real language that they need and can use.

Whether you are an individual or a corporation, Dave has an English training program that will help you.

To improve the quality of communication in your company, a 'communication audit' will be done. The key communicators in your company will be identified and assessed in terms of their language ability and the type and importance of contact they have with foreigners. Samples of your current communications (Email, faxes, reports) will be viewed to gain a precise understanding of your particular language needs. After the audit an action plan is designed and finalized between the training managers and Dave with learning outcomes and goals established.

In this way you can present a quality image of your company and create competitive edge. People want to do business with people who understand them.